- Pond area: 7.0 acres
- Maximum depth: 19.2 ft (5.9 m)
- Location: Uncle Harvey’s Pond is located in East Orleans, just to the south of Pochet Road and east of Barley Neck Road.
- Water access, parking: The main water access is at 75 Pochet Road, comprising a small lot with space for 2-3 cars. An additional access footpath with granite steps is at the end of Harvey’s Lane.
- Boat ramp / boat access: no ramp; canoes or kayaks can be carried to the water from either access.
- Recreational Uses: Birding, kayaking, freshwater fishing. No motorized craft are permitted
- Fishing: Uncle Harvey’s Pond is a warm water fishery and primarily has largemouth and smallmouth bass, yellow perch and pickerel. A MA state fishing license is required.
Other Fun Facts:
- The main access site at 75 Pochet Road was donated to the Town in the early 1950’s by the Carter family to remain in its natural state without any structures to be constructed on it. It was primarily used as a location for fire pumper trucks to fill up with water.
- This land site was restored over a 3-year period in 2011-2013 by the Town Tree Warden and a private citizen with the assist of volunteers and AmeriCorps. Invasive plant species were removed and native plants installed. Unfortunately, due to lack of maintenance many of the invasive plant species have re-established themselves throughout the site.
- There is a Water Quality Management Plan for Uncle Harvey’s Pond (see Table 2). Improvement measures are being carried out by the Town of Orleans. This included treatment with alum in 2021 to reduce phosphorus concentrations in the water, which caused cyanobacteria blooms.
Uncle Harvey’s Pond bathymetry map (depth in feet)
Pond Reflections
Uncle Harvey’s Pond is a gift from the era of Wisconsinan glaciation some 15,000 years ago. A large block of ice broke off from the retreating glacier and as it melted sand/gravel deposits formed. It’s very likely that once the ice melted and infiltrated its sandy base, Uncle Harvey’s Pond was simply a hollow in the landscape. In that prehistoric world the coastline was some three miles out to sea from our current Nauset Beach. Sea levels were approximately 150’ lower than they are today. It wasn’t until thousands of years later that the groundwater level rose enough to fill this depression permanently.
From archaeological records and oral traditions we know Native Americans enjoyed the south facing slope of Uncle Harvey’s Pond. A 1991 septic excavation along Pochet Road uncovered an ancient shell midden. This discovery helped researchers understand the native peoples who occupied this pond site from 3,000- 800 years ago. Here the Pochet Highland was a territorial divide between the Monomoyicks and Nauset tribes. This is a watershed delineation based on drainage patterns; today we study the movement of groundwater and the nutrients it carries with it through our ponds. We can speculate that the same conditions that attracted our predecessors to this location are still what attract us today: a lovely, sheltered pond tucked into a hollow surrounded by native vegetation. The pond provides a home to fish, turtles, amphibians, birds and all types of dragonflies and damselflies. People then surely fished these waters as we do today and on a sunny winter’s day basked along its protected south shore.
Native Americans lived lightly on the land, using fires to keep undergrowth controlled for hunting. In 1620 our peninsula had black earth and forests filled with trees. At Uncle Harvey’s Pond there were likely dense stands of vegetation including Clethra (Summersweet), Vaccinium (Blueberries and American Cranberries), Cephalanthus (Buttonbush) and many rushes and sedges. By 1660, the European settlers had completely stripped the earth of trees for shipbuilding and houses. All the black soil was blown away in our windy storms, reducing the land to a barren, desolate space. When Uncle Harvey’s Pond hosted grazing cattle in the early 1900’s a cart road completely encircled the pond and little other vegetation was present.
New federal and local regulations governing the protection of wetlands have strengthened the 100’ buffer around the pond. Now we need to remove unwanted, non-native plants. Reestablishing this buffer, finding remediation techniques for millions of gallons of stormwater, and town wide efforts to control nutrients from septic leaching fields are our immediate challenges. Our love of the beauty, biodiversity and the contribution of Uncle Harvey’s Pond to clean groundwater for Orleans can inspire us. May we heed its call to work on many fronts to reduce the inflow of nutrients and ensure its health for many years to come.
Sources: Cape Cod Commission website; Secrets in the Sand Dunford/O’Brien